The Xs and Os: Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar preview the NFL’s Divisional Playoffs

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys preview the NFL’s divisional round with tape study and advanced metrics.

00:00 – Intro
06:10 – Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens
15:08 – Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers
22:24 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions
34:26 – Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills

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Hello everyone and welcome to the divisional round of the 2023 NFL season now that we’re in 2024 that makes sense anyway uh Doug Ferrar here from USA Today sports Media Group and touchdown wire and the guy over there is Greg coell uh the well-lit Greg coell of uh

NFL films ESPN NFL matchup and Greg it’s the divisional round we got a lot of notes so let’s just get rolling here um jump into it Doug jump into it before we get started we we do a a Tuesday phone call to kind of get the the scene set

For our Wednesday video and you always bring up interesting things and you mentioned and I wanted to just get into this quickly before we get into the games how teams scheme things up differently in the playoffs because now everyone’s in the building and it’s far more opponent specific than it might be

In the season if you could just expand on that and kind of tell our viewers listeners how NFL teams might be doing things differently now that they’re preparing for playf play off games well obviously you can’t reinvent the wheel in a week you know so what you’ve been

Doing since you started otaa is that’s still the foundation of everything you do but you now have more people involved in in preparation and game planning because what a lot of teams do I would say most teams they bring in their Scouts they’re in the building they’re going through specific things there’s

More specialized game planning there’s more specialized research uh depending on what the the staff think thinks is necessary for that particular opponent um you know you never want to leave any stone unturned you never know what down or distance or or play call or approach

Is going to be the one that that has a major effect on the game so you know you never want to be I don’t want to use the word surprised because surprised is not quite the word um because I’ve had conversations with quarterbacks who’ve played in the league for 15 years and I

Say to them were you ever surprised by what a defense showed you and pretty much the answer I got was no wasn’t surprised so it’s not a matter of wow they’re doing something that is just we never saw before it’s just it’s just getting to things a little bit

Differently um it’s you know it’s just it’s more Nuance it’s more detail it’s more subtlety than it is we’re we’re changing everything we do because you can’t do that you know you may decide based on the opponent that hey you know what we want to play a higher percentage

Of Zone coverage this week than man coverage even though we’re a man team we may decide hey you know what we’ve got to specifically match up to the tight end this week and you know what we’re going to do it with xplayer on our defense because that that just we need

To do that this week you know those kinds of things um but that’s what teams do because right now look every team wants to win every week in the league but there’s no question that the everything is heightened in the playoffs because it’s one and done yeah I would

Say that if your quarterback answers that question with yes I am surprised a lot you probably aren’t in the the playoffs anyway uh and you probably didn’t play quarterback for 15 years in the NFL no well and there’s also like uh the Dolphins I mean they they were down like

All their Ed rushers the signing guys off the street so fangio went with a bunch more zero blitzes than anyone expected oh Vick F you’s an idiot you can’t Blitz Mahomes well what the hell else is he supposed to do just sit there and wait for Mahomes to complete passes

Yeah and and and you know he probably didn’t have a feel for his players uh and what they could do I mean obviously some of these guys have in the league but they haven’t been with him so um you know he took a an approach that you know

I don’t want to say it’s an easy approach but obviously if you’re going to Blitz like that there’s still gaps and lanes and all that you’re not just saying to six or seven guys just go randomly but you know he felt that that was the best approach see that’s the

Thing that always I find intriguing then we’ll get to the games um the thing I find intriguing is you know coaches they do this all the time okay they sit around and then this is what I love about it the process I wish I could

Be in the room you know and they spend so much time trying to figure this out does it always work of course not it doesn’t always work but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing or they’re stupid I mean this is what these guys do you know sometimes you go

With the plan that you think will be the best plan uh for your opponent and also what we don’t know we can glean it at times but what we don’t know is what they know about their own players right so you know it’s easy for for an

Outsider to say oh well they should have done this or why aren’t they doing well they may know that a player or players can’t do certain things so they can’t do those things even if they seem like obvious things to do you know you see that a lot with quarterbacks you know

People always wonder well why aren’t they doing that well they’re with that quarterback every single day they know him inside and out mentally and physically and more than likely they’re asking him to do what he’s capable of doing well and they’re not asking him to do what they know that he can’t do

Particularly well right and it can be as simple as and this is a hypothetical but let’s say you replace Jaylen Phillips who’s injured with Justin Houston which the Dolphins kind of did uh and maybe Houston’s best move an inside counter maybe Phillips’s best move is an outside

Sort of dip and rip and release that kind of motorcycle lean let’s just say you have two different kinds of and it could be you know this guy better inside this guy well that changes the entire way your line reacts of course that that that changes the way you line up with

Your front yes Christian wi in it with a guy with a better inside counter he may do more TT stunts because you have the inside covered so you now I can go this way it could be one little Domino and the whole thing just changes the whole

Thing gets changed exactly so so there’s so much you know to that and obviously that stuff’s hard to talk about because you know that’s that’s Clinic type stuff right and we don’t know know thinks about Justin Houston versus Jaylen Phillips but as the Dolphins sad for the Dolphins are out of playoffs

Let’s get into the teams that are still around uh Survivor pool of eight and we’ll start with the Houston Texans at the Baltimore Ravens we’re going to talk about regular season rematches in two of these games but here the week one rematch doesn’t mean a lot that was CJ

St’s first NFL game Bobby sck’s first game as his OC stra completed 28 of 44 passes for 242 yards no touchdowns no picks pass reading of 78.0 strad kept everything underneath he attempted two passes of 20 or more air yards completing neither or neither whichever either since week two as I’m sure you

Know Greg strout has completed 35 of 59 deep passes for a league High 123 yards nine touchdowns no interceptions and a league High Pass rating of 143.5 so this is a different and exponentially better Stroud the Ravens are obviously aware of that all their Defenders have been asked

The same what CJ strad do you see now and they all say the same thing he’s better but we still need to beat him but that’s you know that’s just where it is so week one Ravens Texans I don’t really glean a lot from that no I don’t I agree

With that and I think this is a fascinating match up on that side of the ball because you know I think what Mike McDonald has done with that defense is really really good um they’ve got a lot of of really important players like I would argue that the three most

Important players on that Ravens defense are the two linebackers Queen and Smith and the safety Hilton and and Hamilton essentially is their slot Corner a good percentage of the time now every once in a while they’ll go to more conventional nickel and play molette at at at slot

Corner and keep Hamilton at safety but but Hamilton for the most part has been their slot Corner over the last part of the season um they’ve gotten really good play up front from specific individuals you and I have talked about matab buuk we don’t need to go over that again um

Just know that my weekly Justin metab bouquet uh fan club yeah just you know he lines up predominantly inside but there are times they line him up as a wide nine and he’s shown the ability to do that Clowney’s had the best year of his career as a pass rusher van noi is

Still a factor in multiple ways just a really good football player who can do a lot of things for you um they’ll use him like belich used him as you know the to some degree to some degree not all the time but he’ll be like a he’ll be lined

Up in a three Tech alignment and but he also rushes the quarterback and he’s done that pretty well this year from an edge position um and you know those two linebackers as I said and Hamilton are critical pieces and and they’re not a high percentage Blitz defense people who

Think that oh it’s the same as wink Martell it’s not they’re not a high percentage Blitz defense they’re selective Blitz defense and when they do it they’re very very good at it so this is a challenge you know the one one of the things that the the Texans do have

Going for them is their left tackle tonsil is one of the two or three best in one-on-one pass protection so they don’t necessarily need to worry about helping him you know let’s talk about what he did against miles Garrett wow yeah no he’s he’s a really good player

So um so that that really helps them because obviously the last thing that that offensive coaches want to do and certainly Bobby slowick who comes from the background of let’s get five out um is is have to keep people in either as primary pass pass protectors or even as

Chippers they he doesn’t really want to do that you know and tunel obviously is a guy that you don’t have to worry about that so uh so a really intriguing match up on this side Collins has really come on as as a really strong boundary X he’s

Tall he’s he’s he’s a Strider he’s athletic he eats up ground um he he’s shown very good run after catch he can run away from man coverage um you know one of the things they’ve done well and Collins has been a big part of that is they’ve handled cover one well because

They run a lot of crossers and he can run away from from coverage and crossers as the underneath you know you see see a lot of postc cross type combinations he runs the crossers and he runs away from coverage so you know that’s an advantage quick and intermediate outs those outs

To col been just devastating all year yeah so I mean you know it’s it’s a good matchup on that side of the ball yeah the Ravens do not have a specific coverage type unlike the Browns who are heavy You Know cover right uh the Ravens this season they’ run single High

Coverage on 46.4% of their snaps two high 53.3 it’s been cover three cover four cover one cover six in that order um and it doesn’t really change a lot on third down like they don’t oh God it’s we have to do XYZ you don’t know what

You’re going to get from snap to snap they do all of it well and they’re very Adept with coverage switches so it is multiplicity from front to back and they can pretty much do anything they want no it’s a tough defense to play against and

Of course on the other side of the ball you know um you know everybody talked about Lamar and deservedly so but they still lead the league in rushing by a wide margin and obviously Lamar was they’re leading rusher because you know they lost Dobbins early in the year so

They kind of you know pulled it all together with uh Edwards who you know always seems to have a good year for them at the end of every year it seems like the guy has 750 yards averaging five yards a rush you know he he can

Break off some games yeah and then you know Hill has been an important player for them um so you know their run game is still problematic they get to the Red Zone a lot and they score touchdowns when they get to the Red Zone and that’s where the Lamar running Factor really

Really comes into play yep now the Texans are generally more two high than single high they run a lot of cover for six not a surprised n demo Ryan’s history um Lamar has five of his 20 I had to look at this three or four times

Like is this true Lamar has five of his 24 touchdown passes this season against two high and two of his five interceptions yeah that I don’t uh you know what I do know is what the Texans defense is is they’re they’re they’re more of an execution based defense than

A heavily schemed defense not high percentage Blitz do not play a lot of man um as you said you’ll see a lot of two High um they will do some late coverage rotation but they’re not one of those you know heavily schemed defenses where you’re not sure what you’re going

To see you know they’re not they’re not trying to to I don’t want to say fool that’s not the right word but you know um they’re not they don’t spend a lot of time with confusion and what they do they where they will match Stingily uh

On the best receiver a good part of the time so he’ll play both sides but even when they do that um it’s not necessarily man although they do have lock principles every team has a different name for you know when they play zone but they lock the boundary X

Receiver with a corner the Texans will do that with Stingley he’s clearly their best covered Corner um you know I think they’ve gotten really good play from people who are probably not known players the linebacker Cashman has shown up on tape all year um since they got

Derek Barnett he has been a factor as an edge pass rusher yes Anderson and grenard are really good players Anderson is not a bendy guy but he’s really strong and his speed to power Rush is a problem gard’s bendier than Anderson and he’s shown up a lot this year so you

Know and inside they’ve got guys whove who’ve been in the league for a lot of years and if always been solid players inside rankins Collins they’re getting really good play from Davis um so they you know they have good players they’re just not a defense which maybe in this

Matchup serves them well that they’re probably an assignment oriented defense a do your job kind of Defense more than a defense that relies on a lot of schematics and I think that’s always important when you play Lamar yeah I was gonna say that that may work to their

Advantage as opposed to hey we’re gonna get all tricky and the Ravens are getting all tricky and someone’s gonna blow a gap at some point right boom um I found this interesting and I watched all 10 of these play plays uh Lamar’s 10 explosive runs this season only one came

Against two high 12 y against the Jaguars in week 15 most of the time when he’s taken off is against cover three which is you know you go back to like how Colin Kaepernick used to just demolish too high against the Packers in all his games and um but Lamar is has

Been more prone to get explosive runs out of two high so that’s interesting yeah my notes on grenard leads the team of 14 sacks fast guy off the edge with a great Knack of using rips and violent hands to get disengage from blockers and he is generally the pass rush to the

Side of the left tackle so he has won some high-profile matchups without question he’s he’s a very good player and you know like I said he’s more flexible than Anderson Anderson has great strength but gard’s a A grenard can flatten his Rush path at the top of

The pass rush Arc Anderson can really do that Anderson wins with power and he times his hands really well like when when the blocker gets his hands on him he just he does one of those little quick you know mosquito SWAT things oh yeah you know that’s his thing playing

Off Anderson plays off contact very well that’s his game that’s a better way to put it than mosquito SWAT thing but I so that’s that’s a fascinating match up Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers uh the ners are another team without a coverage type they’ve played

50% single high uh to high 50% of the time cover three cover four cover one then cover two in that order they will flip to a bit more single high on third down but as is the case with the Ravens they play what works for them and they

Don’t change a lot from a systemic point in a situational sense um so we’ll see what that means now Green Bay’s defense under the much malign Joe Barry has ined quite the turnaround over the last three weeks from weeks one through 16 the Packers allowed an opponent completion

Rate of 66 20 touchdowns to six interceptions and an opponent pass rating of 96.6 in the last two weeks of the regular season uh the ATA completion rate of 60.4% fifth best in the league one touchdown one interception and an opponent pass rating of 79.5 11 best in

The league League now this was against the Vikings with their 12th quarterback and the Bears which right know um Dak press got through for 403 yards and three touchdowns in the Wild Card round but he also threw two interceptions and got out of there with a pass rating of

89 Point yeah that was garbage Time stuff yeah so and you made a couple uh I I saw a couple of your notes on the the Packers defensive game plan focused on coverage not pressure they only rushed five or more on nine of Prescott 70 on Prescott’s dropbacks and they played a high

Percentage of two hiai Ridge against Cowboys it could have been a function of the game as well so we don’t know you know I would again when you play the 49ers your starting point is the Run game you know I obviously pie is is is a great player and we’ve talked about him

But the starting Point’s the Run game um so you have to decide how you want to defend the Run game obviously they’re really good running to the left that’s what they do very well um and while while the the higher percentage of mcaffrey runs come out of 21 Personnel

So you would expect that the Packers would be in their base which is a a 52 basically um mcaffrey also leads the NFL with a meaningful number of runs now a meaningful number of runs out of 11 personnel and they get their wide receivers involved as blockers

Exceptionally well and I think that’s an important part of their run game so is there anything you’ve seen from the Packers in the last three weeks where you think oh this is why it’s sort of gotten better no I wouldn’t no I mean I can’t answer that specifically I will say when

I watch the Packers um I think their front’s pretty good um they’ve got two good Edge players in Smith and Gary and vaness has been getting more snaps the rookie and he’s actually flashed I think they have some really strong inside players we know about Kenny Clark Carl

Carl Brooks 94 has played really well for them can I say I loved his college tape because it’s not that you see a 300 pound Edge rusher and that’s where he played most of his snaps that was fascinating to me yeah and he’s an inside player for them and Devonte Wyatt

Has been playing more snaps now and he’s been playing better so I think their front’s pretty good and Walker and Campbell solid linebackers big athletic um you know don’t forget their secondary this year has gone through a ton of injuries they were they’re playing with a lot of guys that they didn’t believe

They would be playing with so you know again that takes time you know uh they play a lot of Zone they’re not a heavy man-to-man coverage team you know in playing Zone people might think that’s easy just oh you know I got this area it’s not you have to understand receiver

Distribution splits routes that come from all that when to pass a guy on you know when to carry him I mean there’s a lot that’s involved there and when you’re playing with young players you know that that can be difficult so they’ve struggled at times throughout the year clearly they had a stretch

Where they seemed like they couldn’t stop anybody in the pass game playing Zone but but you know obviously they’re going to have to be pretty good this week or it’s going to be a tough tough day at the office real quick um we talked about pry a lot just his kind of

Thumbnail his attributes especially rare for such a young quarterback and how they this defense I think there’s two things that he does exceptionally well you know um I think number one is he he he’s a true anticipation thrower meaning he will deliver the football to to space before receivers begin their breaks how

Many times this year have we talked about in in our previews oh last week pie hit this you know in Cut to auk 23 yards downfield and he threw it before auk even made his cut correct I think you know I think that’s innate I’ve had a lot of conversations with people I

Think that’s innate I don’t think you can point that out to a quarterback you can say hey this is when you should throw it but if you don’t see it like that you’re not going to throw it because it’s a scary throw to throw it

To an area where the receiver is not I mean that you know so I’m being honest that’s a hard thing to do he’s very good at that and and by the way that pass offense demands that that’s the way they play pass offense you know I’m not sure

A lot of people realize how many throws in that offense are between the numbers where there are more bodies and those are difficult NFL throws the other thing that we had no idea about watching his college tape and I’m sure it’s one reason he was Mr Irrelevant besides the

Fact that he’s obviously not phys Bally imposing doesn’t have a power arm you know all the all the trait stuff but the other the the other sort of mental part of his game which you don’t have to see in college because College very few colleges do this is he is so good at

Dealing with late coverage rotation I mean he sees it in a heartbeat and registers and processes it like that and don’t forget you know he has a second to process that you know I sit with a clicker I can watch the play 10 times he’s got a second to process it and he

Does an unbelievable job of processing late coverage rotation and then knowing immediately where to go with the football based on his route concept and and combinations and you know you don’t see that much you certainly didn’t see that in the Big 12 no um yeah I I’ll

Just say let go back and watch a really interesting play like 10 times okay what was the safety doing what was the underneath guy doing what was the by then you’re sacked 14 times and you lost yeah I mean he’s got to see that in less

Than a second yep crazy so so I mean they’re a difficult offense to play against um you know obviously they play a lot out of 21 Personnel probably 40 to 45% of their snaps but they also have great success out of 11 obviously throwing and and running um you know and

And the way they use Debo and mcaffrey you have to kind of figure out how you want to deal with that you don’t want to get caught up in too many adjustments and too much communication because you know one guy gets out of position and you’re you have a problem and

Positioning is a problem because they have so many it’s mcaffrey it’s Samuel it’s now auk it’s certainly KD where these guys can all line up at four or five different places correct formation and they can kick your ass from any of those places and it’s four or five guys

Right and and you know the beauty of that and and and and the genius of it is they can line up in all those different spots but but the concepts are all the same it’s they just get to it from so many different ways y okay here’s the

Game will be discussing a rematch uh Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions in week six against the Lions a 20 to6 Detroit when Baker Mayfield completed 19 of 37 passes for 206 yards no touchdowns one interception and a pass rating of 56.8 probably the worst game of the

Season for him at least St uh statistically for sure my notes on this Greg I don’t know what you think he was frequently speeding up in the pocket whether he was hurried or not didn’t throw with good base fundamentals and he threw off platform more than he needed

To which led to a lot of incompetence against tight coverage he had a wide open shot to Trey Palmer with two minutes left in the first half he overthrew by a couple yards would have been an easy touchdown if he stayed within himself that was a deep over from

The slot against four and Palmer beat safety cir Kirby Joseph over the top Mayfield did have a defensive tackle Bonito Jones pressuring him right when he threw the ball but as we like to say Greg that’s kind of a throw you need to make in the National Football League he

Was pressured on 13 of his 41 drop backs in that game he completed two of 10 passes for 17 yards in his sack for the season Mayfield has been good against the Blitz and good against pressure for the most part it’s not as if he’s a complete disaster under pressure and

Dave Canalis does some good things to keep him protected as we’ve discussed before so maybe that game was an odity but it presented most of the things about Mayfield over the years that we that tend to give you pause yeah and I think they’ve increased their their

Shotgun uh snaps over the course of the season I think they’ realize that that’s where he’s most comfortable certainly he played that way in college you know under Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma so that’s where he’s most comfortable you’re right he missed some throws in that game you know I don’t think you can

Use that as a template for what’s going to happen in this this game um you know I think their run game is far better now it’s not great but I think it’s a meaningful part of their offense keep in mind that and then people might not be

Aware of this Rashad White had the second most carries of any back in the NFL this year I don’t think people are aware of that I did not know that myself yeah so I mean and he only averaged 3.6 but you know the early part of the

Season I don’t think he was averaging two yards a carry so their run game it’s part of what they do there’s a volume to it it matters now in the context of their offense and as I said they’ve done a lot more with shotgun because that’s you know you’re playing to your

Quarterback’s Comfort level you have to play to what makes your quarterback comfortable because if he’s not comfortable you’re not likely to have a lot of offensive success um we know that you know what they do with their receivers Godwin is an inside outside guy Evans is is their boundary X but

They will go uh three by one or one by three because auton can line up as the single receiver and then Evans can be number two or number three to trip so they do have some some you know distribution and location Versa versatility um so you know it’s it’s an

Offense that’s grown throughout the course of the season um you know and and you’re right about Baker though the thing about Baker is he’s at his core he’s a rhythmic thrower and the longer he has to stay in the pocket the less comfortable he is and he starts to get a

Little a little frenetic so you know because he’s not really a runner I mean is he he’s not immobile like can he get a first down here in there yeah but he’s not a true second reaction playmaker he’s not that guy you need to keep yeah

You need to keep out of pressure because that’s when things start to you know the gears just start to fall off the machine yeah he starts to play Fast mentally and physically um and that’s when he starts making some some poor ball placement throws the occasional interception um

Hasn’t thrown many this year but you know every once in a while he’ll Force One when he starts to play a little faster um but I think overall Dave Canalis has done an outstanding job with him that offense does have a pretty good feel to it right now yeah and Baker’s

Played well more often than not this isn’t like a Nathan Peterman disaster Bo no no he’s he’s played well a while once in a numbers are numbers you know to me they don’t mean a lot but the reality is he’s thrown 28 touchdowns and only 10

Picks and I think a lot of people have probably thought of him over the years as kind of an interception magnet and he’s you know and he hasn’t been that no um Todd Bulls said this week that against the Eagles he was convinced that running six-man fronts was the thing to

Do God they ran a ton of it they did I thought the whole game was goal line and then BS mentioned that against the Eagles he wanted Dave Canales to get The Passing game in attack mode and just in overarch before we get into the lions that’s where the Bucks are as an

Organization right now they’re just they’re confident in design and execution I’m not saying this is an automatic win it really isn’t but that’s where they are right now they’re not the team they were in week six no but the lions are pretty good oh boy well let’s

Get into that uh Goff with 12 Personnel versus what the Bucks can do against it did you see any I’m sure you’ve you know because we discussed last week how awesome goof has been with heavy Personnel especially with uh Dan Skipper as a six o um did the Bucks when when

They went into heavy Personnel did the Buccaneers do anything specific to sort of array them their defenses against it well you know the the the lions are going to line up in 12 um and they’re going to run play action with GF under center from 12 personnel and they’re going to do that

On first down and it’ll be interesting to see what the Bucks do from a Personnel standpoint I don’t believe they’ll be in a 6-2 front in this game I don’t believe they’ll play with three defensive backs against you know this group um even even when there’s 12

Personnel I don’t that that was specific to the Eagles um uh so um you know the question is what will he do will he still stay Bas you know Bas being a 52 and playing with four def defensive backs or will there be times just based on tendency and field location and

Things of that nature where he’ll think hey yes they’re in 12 but they’re going to throw the ball I mean you know the the last time they played um throwing on first down out of 12 was clearly a game plan 67% of the throws out of 12

Personnel came on first down in that week six game and they’re they’re well aware of this so the question is are there going to be some first down snaps where he might line up in in in nickel you know this this is the chess match that you know the tendency part of being

Specific to your opponent now that we just don’t know um so and you we also know that play action under Center is a huge huge part of what the Lions do um you know goof has thrown the most play action passes of any quarterback in the

League this year and like 90% of them have come with him under Center yeah he has by far the most under Center under Center play action attempts by far Yeah by far I believe but he way up there you know and then and then you know where

Are you looking to attack in your play action pass game out of 12 you know what areas of the field that that’s an important important consideration for the bucks defense you know they don’t want to void certain areas if that’s where they attack I mean they attack

With you know the flats the hooks the in Breer screens they didn’t really take deep shots out of it um but you know they will throw those in Breakers that’s that’s a big deal G’s really good at those play at those throws so you know

You have to you have to try to figure that out because that’s what you’re going to get from the Lions well under Center play action we disc we had a long discussion about this like 10 minutes it was really cool I felt like it was at a coaching Clinic um gofin pressured this

Season pass a rating of 62.1 when he’s blitzed pass rating 94.9 so we need to delineate the difference between blitzing and pressure now the under sender play action thing as we’ve discussed obviously you’re turning your back to the defense when you flip around now you’re going to see a totally

Different coverage picture more often than you ever never would in any other era of the NFL because coverage switches are so much more a thing um in week six my from just on my study BS threw a lot of Disguise and late movement at golf s

Two high a ton handled it yeah he did the Buccaneers sent six or more pass R against golf three times he completed all three attempts for 45 yards screens in which his receivers were able to thrive after the catch but Goff did not seem to be affected At All by bulls’

Covered switches which is pretty impressive yeah um you know one of the things I think that that the film showed is um I think that when you talk about the bugs D I think their coverage just appeared to be somewhat more dependent on formation rather than down or or or

You know situation um you know which a lot of teams do I mean you know you know you go three by one on as an offensive formation a team will show a certain you know tendency coverage you go two by two they might show a different tendency

Coverage so I think that can be pretty common um but uh but yeah I mean that’s that’s what you and don’t forget Gibbs did not play in that game so now he’s he’s obviously going to play this week hello he’s kind of dynamic uh So speaking of voids on the season golf has

Completed 30 or 45 passes against six or more rushers for uh passeren 106.7 against the Bucks in week six GF was pred with five or more rushers whether in base fronts or blitzes and he completed 16 of 16 passes on those occasions there are more screens and

Some instances in which GF would just hit the voids between the rushers and the linebackers because when the linebackers would drop there was always some sort of Crosser or some sort of just you know quick release thing right in that void so you talked about voids

In week six from what I saw that’s where a lot of the voids were the lions were in 12 Personnel on eight of those plays and GF had 18 dropbacks of 12 The Bu bucks matched in base a lot they played man a lot as well so it’s that’s that’s

Kind of the the cat and mouse right there yeah the big the big question always when you play the Bucks is how how many times s will they Blitz when will they Blitz what kind of blitzes how many people will they send I mean it’s all for them it’s really about pressure

Um and so we’ll see you know I mean you know the Lions will play with with six offensive linemen as well I mean if they really feel that it’s a potential problem they’ll play put Skipper in the game and they’ll play meaningful snaps with him and they’ll have six offensive

Linemen to protect so you know this is a real interesting chess match side of the ball yeah uh and one player I want to mention obviously you know about via uh Tran Shan is good uh Yaya diabi I believe he’s a rookie a good player he’s a rookie from Louisville third round

Pick I loved his tape coming out of Louisville but one player I want to mention I know you saw him because he what he did to the Eagles kija cany uh and I I love undersized defensive tackles anyway so he was all over my radar but that dude gave the Eagles

Offensive line all kinds of hell yeah he’s he’s a smaller defensive tackle phenomenal quickness almost plays deep tackle like a running back with the way he moves I’m gonna say it’s funny you brought that up 47 seconds left in the third quarter KY did a jump cut like a

Running back would to get past left guard lenon Dickerson to tackle running back DeAndre Swift for No Gain he was doing jump Cuts Greg he did one and then he did another and he’s also stronger you know that’s what I noticed watching his college tape because immediately

Everybody said he’s 280 pounds he can’t play you know that which you know people say things like that um and and and I watched his tape and I thought to myself you know he’s holding up be and this is college tape I’m talking about he’s holding up fine against doubles he’s not

Getting moved he’s stal mating he’s winning at times you know now again it’s college but that’s all I had at the time and you saw him on the play that ended up being a safety uh where he just drove Landon Dickerson right back into the pocket with power so he’s not just a

Quickness guy even though his quickness is off the charts from John Randall to Aron Donald Greg low man wins well cany will play in just about every Gap and his explosiveness to and through the pocket becomes more and more noticeable the more you watch him so you know that

That bucks D line maybe they don’t have to Blitz but the Lions o line is serious so there there’s another this I mean I boy I’m I’m looking forward to this one because should be a good one if you haven’t watched a Buccaneers maybe you’re thinking oh the Lions will just

Crush them I don’t know about that lions are great right now they’re they’re they’re cooking but the Bucks are they’re in a confident place which sometimes that’ll get you a long way final game Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bill uh as we’re doing this now Greg on Wednesday morning Dev bills have these

Players listed as questionable yeah I know too many quarterbacks Christian Benford rosul Douglas and teron Johnson linebackers Terrell Bernard and Tyrell Dodson safety Taylor rapid receiver Gabe Davis that’s a lot of talent and flux especially on defense oh and by the way there might be another lake effect snow

Event this weekend there is currently a travel band in the OR Orchard Park area so quite a setting for Patrick Mahomes first road playoff game not counting Super Bowls um so Run game is important but let’s talk about the chief defense again against the Dolphins quarterback

Lerry sne a lot of 17 yard catch from Tua to jayen wad was 17 seconds left in the first half on a vertical switch release after that sne was targeted five times in the second half he had allow a single catch couple of those were two a misfires but sne had in incompletions

Thrown to achain Craycraft waddle Cedric Wilson and Tyreek Hill he wasn’t on one he is a traveler he was not on one side of the field it wasn’t just outside it wasn’t just slot I’m bringing Sneed and the chief secondary overall up as a primary construct of this game because

When you and I have discussed the Bill’s offense before one thing that comes up and you say this with a lot of definition they don’t really have anyone who can consistently test your coverage at the intermediate and deep levels we tend to think of Stefan Diggs as oh he’s

That explosive guy well he really isn’t he’s really not yeah so that that’s you know just bringing the coverage into it versus what the bills have on offense even if Gabe Davis is healthy yeah I mean the Chiefs are they’re a fun offense a fun defense to

Watch I mean you know uh they do a lot of different things uh they play two man they play cover two they play cover one um they have a lot of Blitz coverages that look like you know in other words when they Blitz and and it looks like

Cover four but the rules are totally different so you know they have a lot of specific Blitz Blitz coverages um so spags does a really really good job with all that and they’ve got really good players so they’re a really I mean they’re one of the best defenses in the

League clearly I have said before I don’t think they’d be in the playoffs without spags he’s he’s been the the and and and you know the bills offense um you know I I don’t think you know and again when you have a new coordinator take over in the middle of the season I

Don’t think you know from a tactical perspective it’s it’s a difficult offense um I think uh you know every once in a while they’ll they’ll do some some interesting things but I think it’s more of a talent execution offense I think it’s based on the fact that Josh

Allen can do some special things at times and and make some special throws and make some special runs but I don’t necessarily think it’s a difficult offense to to play against tactically no uh in the Dolphins wild card game George carapus was amazing he had two sacks and

Four total pressures one sack came against right tackle Austin Jackson where he got him with the Von Miller long arm and then he had a pressure at nose tackle against Center Liam ikenberg which carapus just pushed ikenberg into the pocket got him running sideways and just went

Bang so you know they got a lot of and they’re another you know it’s like you know Edwards and uh Trent McDuffy a lot of guys their linebackers are good a lot of guys that you don’t talk about but when they get on the field everything’s

In sync which is an endorsement of spags of course now there’s a rematch too of week 14 these teams play tough games um so you know the the bills have won three consec consecutive years in Arrowhead but of course then they lost playoff games you know and that’s what people

Focus on because those games you know are more important so um you know you mentioned the weather I just hope they can play the game normally that you know that’s that’s all I he about I I you know I just I just want the players to

Be able to play but but um if it’s like 20 degrees with no win you just don’t want it one of those freezer Bowl things where it’s you know no no and and it was okay when even though they the bills you know they had all that snow by the time

They got to the game you know the game was a game the bill so you know that’s what you’re hoping for um but you know while the bills have run the ball more and they’ve had success when all said and done it’s it’s this would have to be

A Josh Allen game in my view um you know and the key thing is he didn’t turn it over against the Steelers um and uh and when you they don’t do that look sometimes A Punch’s not a bad thing you play the field position game it’s okay

You know as long you just you know you keep grinding away the great thing about Allen is he forces you to play differently on defense we’ve seen the Chiefs when they’ played Josh Allen use a spy so that takes someone out of coverage and that takes someone out of

Pressure so you know he he forces you to play a little bit differently at times depending on down and distance and field location right well let’s go back to that week 14 game 20 to 17 win for the bills caraus by the way had a sack of

Six FAL pressures in that game Josh Allen completed 23 of 42 for 233 yards one touchdown one pick and a pass rating of 68.8 wasn’t great in that game through four passes of 20 or more air yards completing one uh 25 yard pass to receiver Deontay Hardy with 15 53

Seconds left in the first half when the bills were already up 14 to7 and on those other three attempts lerus sne had his Target unlock whether it was uh Stefan digs twice Gabe Davis once the most important play came with 210 left in the game Allen threw a deep ball of

Digs against cover one from the Kansas City 22 and there was contact by both players and no penalty was called I you know you just let them do what they do but sne had digs manned up all the way downfield and boxed him out this was another game in which Sneed worked

Significant snaps at both right left and right corner and in the right slot so um let’s go back to the momes 11 yard touchdown pass Rashi rice this is one of those situations where your notes and my notes kind of meshed uh the of dolphins 1110 left in the first quarter I’ll give

You the floor grig because there was sort of a uh there was a precedent to that that was pretty you talking about the play from this week yeah the Dolphins game oh oh okay sander rir rice I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear yeah yeah I’m flipping games here but uh the

So this was I believe mahomes’s third pass of the game mahomes’s first pass of the game I think kind of set this up and we’ll put the we’ll put this play up when we do the video yeah this was this was a similar concept to the 11 y

That he threw to Kelce earlier in the possession this this ended the first possession the touchdown um uh uh so basically what they did is they worked kind of for strong I mean rice as the fourth receiver ran the shadow Crosser from the backside um long on the

Touchdown carried Kelce who was number three to trips too far inside which opened the void for rice it was really an easy touchdown it was pitch and catch because of what long did caring Kelce um so but but one of the things that the the Chiefs did exceptionally well

Against the Dolphins we’ll see if it they with this week again it’s a different matchup it’s a different team um is they had a ton of Four Strong pass Concepts where four because they got a lot of Zone and they’re going to get a lot of Zone from the bills and

Particularly if you play cover four four strong is almost impossible to really defend well um now the bills will know this um and they’ll see you know four receivers to one side of the field against zone is hard you just don’t have enough bodies well on quarters it’s

Harder because it’s what it sounds like every everyone’s responsible for a fourth of the field and if you got four against two I mean right so you you have to you have to have your your your sort of backside safety play a different way you have to have your your backside

Underneath Defender play differently you know you have to adjust to that I really like the design of their and it was a little different in that um on the touchdown Kelsey and rice they weren’t running mesh but they crossed over at the same time the outside the two

Outside receivers in trips right were running clearout routes with a switch release so it was like two crossers and the whole defense kind of went we don’t know what to do it was really it was interesting I like I like the design uh yeah well I mean that that was the play

You’re talking about the touchdown that’s where Long Carry Kelce and you know he just voided an entire area and no one then uh you know carried R uh carried rice so he just ran to an open spot yeah the bills we’ve discussed this have also done more for strong since Joe

Brady became their OC not as much as the Chiefs but um and I believe the ners use a lot of it do the Packers use a lot of it I mean I know you have specifically more and more teams are doing it because it’s you know it’s it’s an antidote to

To quarters and then more and more teams are playing quarters so it’s an antidote to you know the NFL cyclical from a tactical perspective as you know you’ve written about all this and you we both written books about it right so you know about all this so it’s cyclical so now

Uh you know teams you know for a couple years we heard about everybody wanting to play like Vic vano you know star with that quarter structure and work off that and now what’s happened is so offenses now after a year or two as smart coaches kind of look at this and say

Okay that posed some problems for us so now how are we going to attack that and one way to attack that is with four strong cut the field in the half and double the numbers Advantage sounds pretty yeah that’s what you it it’s it’s numbers and leverage that’s what you’re

Trying to do you know in the pass game when you’re playing Zone yep well Greg we always have a high leverage opportunity with you as our uh as our pilot on these wonderful ex’s andos talks looking very much forward to the divisional round and we’ll be back gosh next week for the conference

Championship previews pretty amazing huh God it’s gone moving along you know yeah it always Races by in season it stops and after two weeks you’re like where did it all go right no no true what the heck and then we gotta into draft stuff and

We’ll do all that but uh Greg as always awesome stuff and uh we’ll talk more ex and those next week thanks Doug